How many redirects can I use on a site?

Some SEOs think, that google gives a penalty to a site, when it uses a lot of 301 redirects. Extensive redirecting has primary no influence on rankings and website quality.

Answer

There are no limits in using 301 redirects on a site. You can implement more than 100k of 301 redirects without getting any penalty.

But: Too many 301 redirects put unnecessary load on the server and reduce speed. Try to reduce direct redirects by using rules.

Pro Tip:

If you want to implement a big number of redirects for page sculpting you should implement them in smaller chunks time by time. You should also try to reduce the rules. Less rules mean better server performance and faster page load speed.

More information

See Matt Cutts on Youtube Google Webmaster Help Channel: "Is there a limit to how many 301 (Permanent) redirects I can do on a site?"